Council kowtows to developers with affordable housing backflip

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Editorial

November 26, 2025 — 5.00am

Developers slowly circling to build new housing at Frenchs Forest have cried poor over requirements to provide affordable options. What a surprise – not.

Luckily for them, the developers found a sympathetic ear. They convinced Northern Beaches Council to walk back from its previous commitment to include 10 per cent affordable housing for new developments in the burgeoning Frenchs Forest town centre. Instead, councillors have bowed to the demands of developers and some residents and have mandated a paltry 3 per cent.

Residents complained that the affordable housing mandate somehow cruelled development in Frenchs Forest, and that they were unable to sell properties at the price they wanted. Adding to the council’s backdown over mandating affordable housing was a municipal report, both self-serving and self-deluded, that found young people were leaving, chasing cheaper rents.

An artist’s impression of Frenchs Forest under the council’s plan to boost housing density.

In the four years since the 10 per cent mandate came into effect, developers have been happily building in many other areas of the northern beaches. Meanwhile, just four new housing applications have been approved for the Frenchs Forest town centre, including a $71 million 124-apartment complex – but none have commenced construction.

In 2021, the Berejiklian government nominated Frenchs Forest as a major centre of sustainable growth. Later that same year, the council mandated 10 per cent of development in the suburb’s centre be set aside for affordable housing to supercharge the construction of 1800 new homes in the suburb, which is also home to the Northern Beaches Hospital.

Back then, the Northern Beaches Council scheme attracted wide public support, partly because it would provide accommodation for essential workers and young people to live locally.

The council retreat from affordable housing carelessly flies in the face of industrial action undertaken for more than a year by NSW nurses: one of their major concerns was the housing crisis, because many are unable to live near where they work due to high rents, strong population growth, stagnant wages and a lack of supply.

Frenchs Forest is one of the Sydney suburbs with an obvious need for affordable housing. It is a growth area with limited access to public transport. Its biggest employer, the Northern Beaches Hospital, operates 24 hours a day and relies on thousands of staff who need to live where house prices are beyond the reach of their salaries.

Under the original scheme, developers were to provide a proportion of new homes as affordable housing or to make an equivalent monetary contribution to fund affordable housing projects elsewhere in the local government area.

Frenchs Forest is the largest designated development area on the northern beaches. Developers have been feasting on smaller projects elsewhere in the municipality before successfully trying on this move to increase profits before they start building the really lucrative projects in the town centre.

Greens councillors opposed slashing the affordable housing mandate but they lacked the numbers to overturn the council backflip. The council now looks like a short-sighted citadel, wasting an opportunity to build a better future for all residents.

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